We started the day with a stroll to get our tickets for the train to yokohama and decided to visit the imperial gardens at the same time. The palace was off limits and all tours were booked out already so we just strolled the gardens. At this point the rain joined us and the act of taking photos while holding the umbrella was mastered.

Before leaving we visited an important monument of Kusunoki Masashige who was a 14th-century samurai who fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genko War, the attempt to wrest rulership of Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate and is remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty.Read more

While on our trek to the Imperial Palace we saw the statue of Kusunoki Masashige in the East Garden of the Imperial Palace. We remember listening to random tourists who spoke english--which made us a little bit at ease and tempted us to follow them. The Imperial Palace looked amazing with its bridges and high walls. Its a great reminder of Tokyo's history and their respect in preserving it.